ScienceQuest October 10 th
A) Observe Plants a.
Update Observation Sheets
B) Blow up Volcano
C) Introduce Minerals
MINERALS a.
What are real volcanoes made of? (Dirt) b.
How do plants get their energy to grow?
(Nutrients and minerals in dirt) c.
Does your Mom or Dad ever tell you to take your vitamins or drink your milk? Why?
(There’s vitamins and minerals in them) d.
What are some examples of minerals? (Salt, Gold, Diamonds, Rubies,
Emeralds…) e.
Did you know that we eat and use minerals everyday? There are minerals in our water, toothpaste, medicine, baby powder, cereal, vegetables...
Minerals are used to build buildings; they’re in your bathtub, your dinner plates, in jewelry, basically everywhere! f.
What minerals are in jewelry? (Rubies, Diamonds, Sapphires, Gold,
Silver, Emeralds…) i.
Birthstones
1.
Find out what month each student was born in and show them their birthstone on the chart
D) Go Prospecting a.
Where do minerals come from? ( The ground ) b.
What do you have to do to find them? ( Dig them up ) i.
Take a look at the sieves. Are there different sizes? Why? (So the big screens can catch the big stuff and the little screen can catch the little stuff)
1.
Take your bag of mining dirt and let the students help pour the contents out into the stacked sieves
2.
Carefully agitate the sieves to let the dirt sort through
3.
Take the first big sieve off and notice the large minerals a.
Are there different colors? i.
Let the students help identify the large minerals
4.
Take the other sieves off and notice the size of the stuff that comes from each a.
Try to identify some of the smaller minerals
5.
Why are there different sizes? (The big crystals might have been crushed; there wasn’t enough room for big crystals to form)

6.
Why are there different colors? a.
Explain that the different colors come from different elements (“impurities”) and in different concentrations b.
The same element can also cause different colors in different minerals i.
Iron: purple (amethyst), blue (aquamarine), red, yellow, green (peridot) ii.
Chromium: red (ruby, garnet), green
(emerald), purple, orange iii.
Copper: blue, green (turquoise) iv.
Manganese: pink, orange, yellow v.
Titanium: blue (sapphire), pink (pink quartz)
E) Geodes a.
What does this look like? Is it pretty? ( A rock, No ) b.
Put a geode inside a sock and gently break it with the hammer by aiming for the middle c.
What do you see inside? ( Crystals ) d.
Are there different colors? e.
Would you have known that something so pretty could be inside this rock by just looking at the outside? ( No ) i.
How do you think geodes form?
1.
Under certain conditions these rocks form solid walls around liquid that contains chemicals in them. That liquid hardens to form solid crystals like you see in the middle of the rock. Quartz is a common mineral found in geodes.
If there are any duds, then trade out for another geode. Each student should take home a half of a geode to keep.